President and Vice-Chancellor welcomes JEP report on USS valuation

20 Sep 2018

Nancy outlines the report’s findings and next steps

Dear colleagues

The Joint Expert Panel (JEP) that has been reviewing assumptions for the 2017 valuation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) has just published its report which is to be welcomed.  

The JEP consists of members proposed by Universities UK (UUK) representing employers and the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) representing members and an independent chair. Its report of over 100 pages is the unanimous view of the JEP and recommends possible ways of reducing both the deficit in the pension fund and the cost of future benefit provision. 

In summary, the report suggests that a combination of employers taking on greater risk and the trustee updating the valuation assumption would mean that the future USS deficit could fall from £7.5 billion to £4 billion. 

The report will now be considered by UUK and UCU and if agreement can be reached, proposals would be submitted to the USS trustee via the Joint Negotiating Committee.  If proposals were accepted by the Trustee, the Pension Regulator and the 350 employers which are part of the scheme, these would reduce the amount of extra payments that would be required by employers and employees to make the scheme viable. 

The JEP notes that any such changes would need to be consistent with the statutory and regulatory duties of the USS trustee and the Pension Regulator. We are all hopeful of finding a resolution to this very difficult issue but need to await responses from the major bodies involved.  In the meantime, a consultation continues on proposed changes to USS contribution rates - this consultation is taking place at the same time as the work being done by the Joint Expert Panel and is open until Friday, 2 November.  You can read more at: cost sharing.

The other major pension scheme for our staff, The University of Manchester Superannuation Scheme (UMSS), has just completed a consultation with members and those eligible to join on proposed changes to the scheme and the UMSS trustee will shortly consider responses.   

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell

President and Vice-Chancellor